by Lori Ryan
“It can happen with a head wound. Stay back, sir. Let us get her to the rig. We need to get her to the hospital.”
“I’m riding with her.”
“Are you family?”
“I’m riding with her.”
Sam heard low murmurs and she was lifted. They must have acquiesced because she heard Logan talking to Chad, telling him to follow and meet them at the hospital. Then he was there, holding her hand.
She still couldn’t turn her head but she knew it was him. The feel of his large hands holding one of hers had always made her feel so small. Like a little doll.
The voices began to fade. She tried to pry her eyes open and call for Logan. She tried to squeeze his hand, but she wasn’t sure her fingers were following the instructions.
She felt like they squeezed, and yet she wasn’t sure she felt his hands holding hers any longer. Where were his hands? Sam drifted and let herself fall into the deep sleep that continued to claw at her. She would sleep for just a little while.
Logan sat by Sam’s bed and held her hand, rubbing his thumb over her soft skin as though he might be able to will her awake that way. The doctors said there wasn’t anything wrong with her head. She should wake up and be just fine.
Only, she hadn’t woken up yet and that scared the hell out of him. Logan thought he might crawl out of his skin sitting and waiting. He needed Sam. He needed her to wake up and grin at him and say something cheeky and brilliant and irreverent. Something utterly unfiltered like she always did.
Sam’s mom came into the room and smiled at him. “I want you to go get something to eat now, Logan,” she said.
He shook his head at her.
“I can’t leave her.” Was that his voice? It sounded scratchy, like he’d swallowed glass or sand.
Sam’s mom came over and put her hand on his shoulder. “Yes, you can, Logan. I won’t go anywhere. I’ll be right here. But Sam needs you to be strong for her when she wakes up. And, if you run yourself down while you’re waiting, you can’t be there for her.”
The door to the room opened again, letting in the telltale shaft of light from the hallway and Sam’s father poked his head in the door.
“I’ll go with you, Logan. We’ll just go right down to the cafeteria and Iris will call the minute she wakes up.”
“It’s all right, big guy,” said Sam’s sister, Rose, as she slipped in the room past Sam’s father. “I’ll be here, too. We’ll make sure she knows you’re just downstairs if she wakes up before you get back.”
Logan looked at all of them. They had no doubt in their minds she’d wake up. For them, it was simply a matter of when. They were just letting her sleep off the injury like it was nothing. He didn’t know what it would have been like to be surrounded by this family growing up. No wonder Sam was so incredible.
Her mother squeezed his shoulder again and nodded her head toward the door. “Go on, now. Just a quick trip to eat and get some coffee. And, Gregory,” she said, looking toward her husband, “get some juice in him. He’ll pass out if he doesn’t hydrate.”
Logan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. No one had ever taken care of him like this. Sure, he’d found brothers in the military, brothers who supported him and who he would support no matter what. And they would always be his brothers to him. It wasn’t a bond that time or space could sever.
But Sam had such a strong cradle of family surrounding her. She received love and strength and comfort no matter what happened. And, for some reason, Sam’s family was offering that strength and love to him now. As though he were one of them. As though he belonged.
He rose and joined Sam’s father as they walked down the hall and got into the elevator. Gregory punched the button for the second floor, where the cafeteria was located before clapping Logan on the back.
“Don’t worry, Logan, she’s tough. She’ll be just fine. She always did like to sleep in, though. We’d go up to the lake when she was younger, and everyone would be out on the water before she’d even peek her head out from under the covers. Always did like her sleep.”
Gregory laughed and shook his head as though Sam wasn’t lying in the hospital. As though she wasn’t sleeping when she should be waking up. The doctors had assured them she wasn’t in a coma. She was simply sleeping, but Logan had no idea how her dad could be so calm about it.
They exited the elevator and went to the cafeteria where Logan dutifully ate a sandwich and chugged a bottle of juice, but declined the coffee. He rose to go back upstairs, but Gregory waved him back down.
“Give her time to rest, Logan. She’s all right. In the meantime, you can tell me what your plans are.”
“Uh, my plans, sir?” Oh crap, he felt like he was ten years old and getting a dressing down from his dad. Only Sam’s dad didn’t seem to be judging him. Logan looked at him warily, not sure what the man wanted.
“Sure, your plans. Are you going to marry my daughter when she wakes up? You love her, don’t you?”
Logan grinned. This, he knew the answer to. “More than anything, sir. And yes, if she still wants me when she wakes up, I hope to get her down the aisle as fast as she’ll let me.”
Her father looked at Logan for a long time, not breaking eye contact, not giving any clue to what he was thinking. Logan didn’t squirm at all. He kept his gaze locked on Gregory and let him look his fill.
For once, Logan felt whole. He didn’t feel damaged any longer like he had when he first came home. He wasn’t broken or a danger to anyone around him. He finally felt like he was worthy of Sam
He wasn’t an idiot. He knew he still had PTSI, and that there would be some hard times ahead of them. He knew he would need Billy to pull him out of flashbacks. He knew he had a lot of sessions with Ernie in his future, but he felt somehow like he could be whole despite that. He could have a future and work through it all with Sam at his side.
Gregory nodded. “Well, good then. Let’s go see if my little girl is awake. Maybe I’ll tell her she’s had enough time to lollygag in bed. She’s got a man waiting for her.”
Sam didn’t wake up. Not for another six hours and by then, Logan wanted to claw through his skin and right on out of it. Billy sat next to him, his head in his lap.
The dog had alternated between sitting and calming Logan, and climbing up onto the bed to lie with Sam. As a service dog, he’d been allowed in the hospital as long as Logan was there, and none of the doctors or nurses seemed to object to him lying in bed with Sam.
Logan took Sam’s hands and threaded them through Billy’s fur, and he would swear Sam’s eyes began to move behind her closed lids at that.
Her family was coming and going, taking turns going down for food or out for a walk, when needed. They all seemed to have unflappable confidence she would simply wake when she was ready.
Billy raised his head and whimpered. Logan followed the dog’s eyes to the bed and saw Sam watching him, eyes open and calm.
“Sam!” Logan shot from his chair and was by her side in an instant. She simply smiled up at him.
“Can you talk, Sam? Are you okay?”
“Of course, I’m okay, silly man. Why wouldn’t I be? You took care of me, didn’t you?” she asked him with such confidence, much in the same way her family had believed she would wake up. As if it was simply so.
“Yeah,” he said, sitting in the chair by her bed and raising her hand to his lips. He kissed each finger. “Yeah.”
Then he laid his head on her chest and listened to her breathe and to the soft rumble of her laughter, until one of the nurses arrived to check her vital signs.
Yeah. He would take care of her for the rest of her life. For as long as she’d let him.
Epilogue
“Is she serious?” Logan whispered to Sam, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, tugging her back to his front.
Sam nodded and murmured “mm hmm.”
“Wow.” Logan had never seen a woman on a mission quite like this. He’d also never seen a woman deny being i
n labor quite so vehemently.
“The baby is not coming.” A very pregnant Kelly waddled around the room, one hand on her lower back, the other hand pointing and giving orders to those around her.
Somehow, she gave the impression of whipping around, even though her pace was slow. Her pace also included the occasional clutching of her stomach as she bent and groaned, all the while denying she was in labor.
They were there with several of their friends and Kelly’s family members for a “nesting party” designed to help top off the nursery design and help the couple prepare for the baby’s arrival in three weeks.
From where Logan stood, it seemed like this baby wasn’t going to wait three weeks. Hell, to him it seemed as though the baby wasn’t going to wait three hours, but he could be wrong. He was no expert on babies.
Sam seemed to sink further back into him, snuggling in his arms and he tightened his grip. He’d never been so happy in his life. They planned to have the wedding the following summer because her mother and sisters wanted time to plan.
Sam didn’t see the need for a big wedding with a fancy dress and all the frills, but she was doing it for her mom and sisters. She and Logan had gone down to town hall and gotten married quietly. They simply didn’t want to wait.
They’d never tell anyone. As far as the world would know—with the exception of the city clerk and the witnesses they’d grabbed in the hallway of the building—they would marry the following June.
He didn’t care how they were married, just that they were. He had Sam by his side for the rest of his life.
He had resigned from Sutton Capital. Not because he didn’t love the people and the work there, but because he’d found something more important to do. Jack approached him and told him a friend of his was looking to donate a large chunk of money to fund a nonprofit. Jack was going to match the friend’s donation on the condition that the nonprofit was geared toward helping military service men and women with PTSI and Traumatic Brain Injury.
They wanted Logan to head it up, with Ernie as the head of the counseling side of things. It turned out, Jack’s mysterious friend who wanted to donate money was Samantha. She had more money than she knew what to do with sitting in the bank from Tangled Legacy and she knew Logan wouldn’t take her money if she offered it.
He’d been a little bowled over when he found out she had just over a billion dollars if you counted all her property and assets. He was still trying to convince her to let him split their bills, so letting her start a nonprofit for him was hard to swallow.
Still, in the end he did and he was glad she’d found a way to get him to accept it. Thanks to her, Logan would get to help other veterans. And he would start with his own father. They’d gone out to visit him, and his dad was struggling, but Logan and he talked—really talked—for the first time in a long time.
His dad checked himself into an alcohol treatment facility and Logan had lined up a place for his dad to come live in Connecticut when he got out. He’d help his dad get the long overdue help he needed.
They found a building to house the new nonprofit and they were working on staffing it. One of the first things Logan had done was to have a plaque made, dedicating the space to Nick “Dopey” James. Logan had chosen a quote from Henry Scott Holland for the plaque:
Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room … Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me … I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well.
“Kelly, I think we need to head on over to the hospital now,” Jack said, and Logan recognized the overly-easy, I-don’t-want-to-set-off-the-crazy-pregnant-lady tone of his friend’s voice.
Kelly’s dad tried to back Jack up. “Yeah, Kel, I think that’s probably a good idea. Head on over, let the doctor see how you’re doing. Get that baby on out of there.”
“Nonsense,” Kelly said with a wave of her hand, but Logan saw she was panting slightly now and he had to wonder how much pain she was in. “I’ve got three more weeks. Heck, Maddie was a week late. For heaven’s sake, I’ve most likely got another month with this one. These are Braxton-Hicks.”
“Um, Kel,” Jack said, scratching his head, and Logan caught Chad trying to stifle a laugh. Logan had to clamp down on his laughter, too.
The sight was priceless. Big Jack Sutton saying “um” to his wife and clearly struggling with how to get her to the hospital to deliver their baby without ticking her off.
Logan watched as Jack took a step toward Kelly and put a hand on her belly. “I think if they were Braxton-Hicks they would have stopped when you laid down earlier, right?”
They’d managed to get Kelly to lie down for about thirty minutes, but she was up again now. Logan cracked a smile.
“All right,” Kelly’s mom said, coming into the room, a whirlwind force to rival her daughter. “Let’s get my daughter to the hospital. No more dillydallying. Go get the car,” she said to her husband.”
“Mom,” Kelly began, but the word turned into half moan, half howl as she bent double and grabbed her belly again.
“Alright,” Kelly’s mom said. “It’s time, sweetheart. No more messing around.”
Kelly didn’t argue this time. She looked like she couldn’t speak.
They all made a path for Jack as he escorted Kelly through the room and down the stairs.
As the group filed out of the room after the couple, Logan hung back with Sam, wanting just one minute of alone time with her before they joined the crowd. He had a feeling they would be following everyone to the hospital and waiting for news of the next Sutton baby. He was happy to do that, wanted to be there with their friends. But first, he wanted a minute with Sam.
He turned her in his arms and kissed her mouth, fully, passionately, holding nothing back. He loved her more than he’d ever thought possible.
He pulled back and looked into eyes that matched the heat he was feeling, but the moment was cut off by Chad calling up the stairs to them.
“You guys coming?”
“Yeah,” Logan called back.
They’d ridden over to Jack’s with Jennie and Chad so they needed to catch up to them to get to the hospital.
He had only one question for Sam first.
“Do you think you’ll be that crazy when you have a baby someday?” He couldn’t wait for them to start a family. He hoped all of their children were like her. Strong and beautiful and so smart she scared him. Then again, if they were all that smart, he might be in trouble.
She smiled up at him and something about the look in her eyes told him she had a secret. He didn’t even realize he was holding his breath and probably holding her a little tighter as he waited to find out what she had to tell him.
“I guess we’ll find out in about seven months. Well, six months and three point five weeks, near as I can figure,” she said, and Logan lifted her and let out a whoop. He’d never felt such pure happiness flow through him. Sam was his. And they were building a life together. They were building a future together. A family. His family.
---The End---
Pssst! Want to see what happened when Jack and Kelly got to the hospital? Join my Facebook group here. I’ll post the bonus scene at the hospital at 7 pm on April 28th!
The next book in the series, Falling for the Billionaire’s Daughter, is available for pre-order here!
If you want to read more of the Sutton friends before then, you can grab The Sutton Intrigue Series here!
Author Notes (aka Crap I Hope You’ll Read)
Writing this book touched me like no other book has, and I hope it will touch you as readers as well. Before writing this, I was fairly naïve about Post Traumatic Stress Injury and what our returning Service Members go through when they come home. I now
know, the problem is so much worse than anything most of us who haven’t served can comprehend. Logan stole my heart in this book. I gave him the strongest heroine I could image because he simply deserved no less.
Please stay in touch after you read Logan and Sam’s story. As an author, there’s nothing more rewarding than connecting with my readers. You can find me at www.loriryanromance.com where you can sign up for my newsletter (it’s got prizes, freebies, and other great stuff) or email me and let me know what you thought of Logan and Sam and their story.
About the Author
Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense, contemporary romance, and sports romance. She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing.
Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and hasn’t looked back since then. She loves to connect with her readers.
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